Asian currencies and stocks supported by easing of quarantine in China

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Most emerging Asian currencies were

trading in the green on Tuesday against a relatively weaker US

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dollar, coming out of an extended Christmas vacation, because the risk

sentiment improved after China eased COVID-19 quarantine

limitations.

The South Korean won gained the most, rising

around 0.7% to reach its highest level since June 10.

China, Asia’s largest economy, has said it will stop demanding

incoming travelers will be quarantined from January 8 in addition

to degrade the severity of COVID-19 as it has become less

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virulent, raising hopes of an acceleration of economic growth.

Beijing has borne the brunt of harsh coronavirus measures since

the start of the pandemic in 2020, which damaged the economy

activity and global supply chains due to frequent blockages.

The Chinese Yuan and the Benchmark Share Price

the index strengthened by 0.1% and 0.8%.

Other Asian units such as Singapore dollar, Thai

baht The Malaysian ringgit also gained 0.1% each.

The Singapore dollar is the only Asian currency to have

recorded positive growth since the beginning of the year.

“We have seen some strengthening in Asian currencies, due to

reopening in China,” FX strategist Moh Siong Sim told

the Bank of Singapore. “We are getting better clarity on the

full stop in terms of reopening and I think we are moving forward

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the right direction in the medium term.

Meanwhile, investor sentiment was also supported by a

Softer than expected reading of Personal Consumption

The spending index in the United States on Friday, prompting

expectations that the US central bank will begin to reduce

its aggressive path of raising key interest rates.

However, some caution still prevailed as analysts said there was

was more work to do to bring inflation down due to a

labor market.

At 03:54 GMT, the dollar index, which measures the

the strength of the greenback against the six main currencies, was at

104.13.

Among Asian equities, Indonesian equities have

most, gaining 1%, while others like Taiwan, Thailand

and the Philippines strengthened between 0.2% and 0.7%.

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MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific stocks outside of Japan

was up 0.5%.

US markets were closed on Monday due to Christmas.

STRONG POINTS:

** Indonesian benchmark 10-year yields drop to 6.909%

**China revises 2021 GDP growth to 8.4% from 8.1% –

Reuters

**Best Singapore benchmark gainers include Mapletree

Logistics Trust, up 1.9%, and SATS, up 1%

Asian Stock Indices and Currencies at

0354GMT

COUNTRY FX RIC FX FX YTD INDEX STOCKS STOCKS

DAILY % % DAILY YTD %

%

Japan -0.04 -13.42 <.n225>

China >

India -0.08 -10.13 <.nsei>

Indonesian -0.16 -8.97 <.jkse a>

Malaysia +0.09 -5.75 <.klse>

Philippi -0.40 -7.96 0.34 -7.85

nes

South Korea >

Singapore +0.17 +0.28 0.44 4.75

e

Taiwan +0.06 -9.78 <.twii>

Thailand +0.07 -3.65 <.seti>

(Reporting by Archishma Iyer in Bangalore; Editing by

Christopher Cushing)